Articles

On 5 June, friends and colleagues of Takhir Mukhamedzyanov, who were
worried that he had not turned up for work after the previous weekend,
went to his flat in Karaganda, where they found his body. While the
cause of death is not yet known, the passing away of Takhir, a healthy
and energetic 51 year-old, is surrounded by suspicion. Not least because
Takhir recently received threats from “persons unknown” that they would
‘get rid of him’.

For many years, Takhir worked as a miner, first in Soviet industry and
then, after privatization, for ‘Arcelor-Mittal’, which took over all the
main pits and metal foundries in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan. He
was illegally sacked in 2008, after which he took up full-time
campaigning as Vice-President of the ‘Miners’ Families’, a post he held
until his death. Takhir and his colleagues from Miners’ Families gave
valuable assistance to those the organization was originally established
to help – the widows and children of men killed in industrial accidents
– but they also became more and more involved in defending the rights of
working miners. Health and safety standards in Karaganda’s pits and
metal foundries are ignored by the new bosses in their chase for
profits. With the official state-supported trade unions doing little to
defend the workers, the Miners’ Families has taken on the role of an
independent trade union.

Such activities did not go unnoticed. All sorts of pressure was piled
onto Miners’ Families. Meant as a ‘warning’ Takhir’s garage and the car
it housed were blown up on 10 October, 2010. Activists in Miners’
Families believe that the explosion was directly related to Takhir’s
work defending the rights of miners and their widows. According to his
comrade, Natalia Tomilova, threats to use violent and terrorist methods
against workers’ rights activists have again become commonplace.

Just two weeks after the garage explosion, at 9.30 in the evening,
police turned up at Takhir’s flat and forcibly removed him to a local
psychiatric hospital. Two doctors, three uniformed police and a plain
clothes agent claimed that following the loss of his property in the
explosion, Takhir’s suffered a breakdown and needed hospitalisation and
psychiatric treatment. When they tried to give Takhir an injection of an
unknown substance, Takhir managed to break free. He phoned a friend and
his daughter collected Takhir and brought him home. Thanks to a public
campaign, the doctors were subsequently forced to leave Takhir alone.

In March 2011, Takhir was living in the nearby mining centre of
Shakhtinsk when a youth approached him and said that documents that had
been in Takhir’s car when the garage exploded (and which, police
claimed, were destroyed), had been found on a rubbish tip on the edge of
town, revealed after snow melted. This confirmed that Takhir’s garage
was broken into before the explosion.

He could not remain indifferent to injustice

Comrades from the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan (previously known as
‘Kazakhstan 2012’) first met Takhir in January 2009. In September 2010,
Takhir organized a visit to Karaganda by Joe
Higgins (then an MEP for the Socialist Party [CWI Ireland] and now
once again a TD [MP] in Ireland). In November 2010, Takhir took part in
the founding conference of the ‘Zhanartu’ trade union and was elected to
its central committee. In May 2011, he participated in founding the
Socialist Movement Kazakhstan and was elected as one of its five Joint
Presidents. In July 2011, Takhir again organized a visit of an MEP to
Karaganda: Paul Murphy (Socialist Party Ireland), who was one his way to
visit striking oil workers in Zhanaozen. Just two weeks ago, Takhir
visited Zhenkazgan city, where workers have been involved in strike
action and facing repression. Takhir soon found common language with
them and left with a firm commitment between the workers in Zhankazgan
and Karaganda to support each other in struggle.

Takhir worked hard. He could not pass by or remain indifferent if he saw
injustice. We will remember him as a tireless and consistent fighter for
the rights of the working class of Kazakhstan. We will remember him as a
personality; he had no pretensions, he was always spirited, he was a
great person in company. We will miss him.

On behalf of the independent trade union Zhanartu and the Socialist
Movement Kazakhstan we convey our heartfelt condolences to the relatives
and friends of Takhir.

Takhir will always be in our memory, his name written into the history
of the working class of Kazakhstan. Rest well, dear comrade

The Central Committee of the independent trade union, Zhanartu

The Political Committee of the Socialist Movement Kazakhstan

……………………………………………………………………

Letter of condolences from the Committee for a Workers’ International
(CWI)

The following letter was sent from the CWI to the relatives, comrades
and friends of Takhir Mukhamedzyanov:

On behalf of the Committee for a Workers’ International, organised in
over forty countries, we send our heartfelt condolences to the
relatives, comrades and friends of Takhir Mukhamedzyanov.

Those members of the CWI who had the privilege of meeting Takhir,
including Peter Taaffe from the CWI International Secretariat, Joe
Higgins and Paul Murphy from the European Parliament, remember
Takhir as a tireless fighter, a man who devoted his life to fighting for
the rights of the working class, whether as part of the ‘Miners’
Families’, the trade union, ‘Zhanartu’, or the Socialist Movement
Kazakhstan.

The CWI calls for a full and independent investigation into the cause of
Takhir’s untimely death and, in the event of foul play, the bringing of
those responsible to justice.

The CWI pledges itself to honour Takhir’s memory by continuing to
campaign against the injustices inflicted upon working people by the
multinational companies, such as Arcelor-Mittal, Kazakhmys and
KazMunaiGaz and by the capitalist system itself. For the replacement of
capitalism by a democratic and international socialist society, in which
the wealth of society is used for the benefits of all the people, and in
which working people have control over their own lives.